Movable Feasts

You Don't Have To Go To Chicago To Enjoy Dining On The Water

July 23, 1995|By Steve Stanek. Special to the Tribune.

The Algonquin Princess had barely pulled away from the dock when a man standing on a pier across from the boat put a trumpet to his lips and started playing "Summertime," the bluesy classic with spiritual overtones from George Gershwin's opera "Porgy and Bess."

As the first few strains of the song carried over the Fox River and softly echoed back, the 18 passengers on board the Princess couldn't help but applaud the unexpected and delightful performance.

"What a perfect start to the trip!" someone on deck said, and so it was.

"Summertime, and the living is easy" is the first lyric of Gershwin's famous song, and life was indeed easy, at least for the next two hours and 15 minutes for those aboard the Algonquin Princess, a faux paddle boat operated by Capt. Bob Schweihs for Port Edward restaurant in Algonquin.

It was Father's Day, and this was the dinner cruise, departing from the restaurant's dock immediately north of the Illinois Highway 62 bridge and heading north five miles to the U.S. Highway 14 bridge between Cary and Fox River Grove and back. The evening was pleasantly warm, the air still and the river's surface reflecting-pool smooth. Cruising speed aboard the 54-ton double-decker boat was about 5 miles per hour, just fast enough to create a gently rolling wake.

This is the sixth season that the Algonquin Princess has been taking people for sightseeing and fine dining along the Fox River. It is also the sixth season for the Flossiebelle and Anna Marie, dinner cruise boats owned by Dobyns House restaurant in McHenry, near the southern entrance to the Chain O' Lakes.

At the mention of dinner boat cruises, most people in the northwest suburbs probably think of Chicago's lakeshore or Lake Geneva, Wis. But thousands of others know that the Fox River from Algonquin north to the Chain O' Lakes offers similar dining charms, courtesy of the Algonquin Princess, Flossiebelle and Anna Marie.

"I'm enjoying this immensely!" said Erwin Von Bergen of Elmhurst, after finishing his dinner of steak and shrimp brochettes aboard the Algonquin Princess. The dinner cruise was a Father's Day gift from his son and dining companion, Bob Von Bergen, also of Elmhurst.

"The food was excellent. It's so relaxing," the elder Von Bergen said. And, he added, as the umpteenth speed boat zoomed by with smiles and waves from its riders, "everyone is so friendly."

It's hard not to smile at the Princess, certainly one of the most distinctive boats on the river. The boat measures 78 feet long by 17 feet wide and features a paddle wheel at the stern (purely for effect, as twin 110-horsepower Volvo diesel engines and four propellers power the boat) and a canopied upper deck 15 feet above the water. The upper deck has nearly 50 patio chairs and several small coffee tables for people to sit and talk and sip cocktails before and after dinner. Dinner is served in the wood-paneled, enclosed and climate-controlled first deck.

Capt. Schweihs, 60, of Algonquin said he bought the boat specifically for dinner cruises after retiring from Algonquin Imports, a Subaru dealership he owned. Schweihs hails from Hamburg, Germany, and still has the accent to prove it. As a young man, he sailed in the German merchant marine. But one day in 1962, while his ship was docked in Chicago, Schweihs realized he had fallen in love with a young lady and could not leave her. So he jumped ship and married the girl (they recently divorced).

"I started out on the water and I am ending up on the water," he said with a laugh.

Schweihs' longtime friend and former Algonquin Imports auto mechanic Jim Boettcher of Algonquin handled the boat as Schweihs made the rounds among the dinner guests and entertained them with stories of the sights they were seeing. For most of the guests, the favorite sights were the shoreline houses, including one featuring what Schweihs jokingly referred to as "McHenry County's only one-hole par two golf course." The yard, on the river's west bank between Algonquin and Cary, slopes from the house down to the river and has a putting green complete with cup and flagstick at the water's edge. Schweihs said the homeowner sometimes shoots from his back porch, over the yard and to the green.

For Lori Moretti of Schaumburg, life aboard the Princess was great entertainment, even though the dinner cruise with her husband, Mario, sister-in-law Lina Moretti of Naperville and father Gerald Schaade of Naperville started with a misunderstanding. Lori had asked her father where he would like to have dinner for Father's Day, and he answered Port Edward.

"He meant the restaurant. I thought he meant the Port Edward boat," Lori said with a laugh. "But it's worked out great. We've had lots of fun. There's a lot of entertainment . . . the trumpet player at the beginning of the trip and people doing tricks on their jet skis."